How to Engrave Photos on Black Acrylic with the xTool F2

A photo engraved onto matte black acrylic looks great, and it makes a lovely gift or something to sell. In this project I engrave a photo of a dog onto cast acrylic with the xTool F2, cut it out with rounded corners, then cut a little stand for it from the leftover sheet.

The settings below took a lot of testing to get right, but they only work if you follow the whole process, from the type of acrylic to how you prep the photo. Everything is here in order, with screenshots from the video.

Jump to: Choosing acrylic · Setup and focus · Preparing the photo · Engrave settings · Framing and engraving · Cutting it out · Making the stand · The result

1. Choose the right acrylic

Not all acrylic is the same. These are my test sheets, and the one I settled on is cast acrylic, in this case xTool's 1/8 inch (3 mm) frosted black. You can buy good cast acrylic from Amazon, AliExpress or Temu as well, just make sure it's good quality.

To show you why it matters, this is a shiny sheet I had lying around from AliExpress. Same settings, and it was a disaster.

Acrylic usually comes with a protective film on it. Peel it off before you start. It can be a bit fiddly, but engraving or cutting with the film still on is a fire risk.

2. Setup and focus

You only need two things: your acrylic and the cutting plate that came with the F2. Find it, because it's critical for any cutting job. As I knew I'd be cutting later, I put the acrylic on the cutting plate from the very start.

Now focus manually. Turn the focus knob on the side of the laser head until the two separate dots on the material join into one. That's the best position for both engraving and cutting.

3. Prepare the photo

This part makes a big difference to the result.

1. In xTool Studio, click New project. Once the F2 connects over Wi-Fi you'll get a camera image of the bed.
2. Select your material first. I picked xTool's frosted black acrylic from the material list (it matches the part number on the sheet) and clicked Apply.
3. Remove the background from your photo. I use the free Adobe Express background remover. You don't need to sign up. Upload your photo, wait a moment, then download it.
4. Back in Studio, click Import and pick the downloaded image.
5. Crop it so the box sits as close to the subject as possible. It makes framing much more accurate.
6. Make it as big as the space allows (mine was roughly 85 by 47 mm) and center it on the sheet. The laser comes straight down in the middle, so that's where you get the most consistent result. Leave room around it for the cut later.

Next, select the image, click Adjust in the top toolbar and choose Auto adjust. Because you picked the material first, Studio edits the photo for that material. On black acrylic that means it inverts the image and sets the sharpness and contrast for you. In my experience it does a really good job.

4. Engrave settings

In the settings panel on the right, the preset drop-down starts on the xTool reference setting. I saved my own, so mine shows Dog Engraving Settings. These are the values:

Every photo is different, so expect to tweak these slightly for your own image. They're also saved in my free Laser Settings Library, along with the rest of my xTool F2 settings.

Save them to the material

I'd recommend saving your settings to the material you picked, so they're there next time. Change any value and the preset name switches to User-defined. Click Save settings, give them a name and click Submit. They're added to that material's preset list.

5. Frame it and engrave

1. Click the small arrow next to the framing button and choose Rectangular. For this you only care about the outer box.
2. Turn the framing light power up. On a dark material the light can be hard to see.
3. Click Frame and check the box sits where you want it on the acrylic.
4. Click Process and start the job.

I had the lid up in the video so you could see what's going on. When you do it, close the lid or wear laser safety glasses. Acrylic is a plastic and gives off a smell, so make sure you have good extraction, either outside or into an air purifier.

6. Cut it out

You could cut the shape first, but I engraved first and cut afterwards because it was easier to show. Make sure the cutting plate's fins face towards the fan. That gives the smoke a channel to be drawn out as the laser cuts through.

1. Update the camera image so you can see your finished engraving on screen, and drag the original design off to one side. Turn its Output off so it doesn't engrave again.
2. Open the Elements tab and add the rounded rectangle. This is your cut line.
3. Turn off the aspect lock so you can set the height and width separately. I used 105 mm tall by 75 mm wide.
4. Center the box on the photo. A center line appears when it lines up.

Why keep the box quite tight? On the F2 the beam comes from one central point above the bed, so it hits the material at an angle. The further from the center you cut, the steeper the angle on the edge. It will never be perfectly straight, so I kept the box as small as I could while still giving the photo a nice border.

Cut settings

Set the box to Cut, open One-click set and pick the 90 square. That's my cut setting for this acrylic: blue light, 90% power, 3 mm/s, 1 pass. It cuts cleanly without using too much power or melting anything.

Frame the cut box again to check it doesn't clip the photo, then click Process and Start. Mine took about 2 minutes in one pass. You'll get a fire detection warning when cutting a material like this. Click to continue anyway, then press start again.

If you look closely you can see the slight angle on the outer edges I mentioned.

7. Make a stand from the offcut

I didn't design the stand myself. There's a laser cutting section on Creative Fabrica with ready-made designs, and searching for acrylic photo stand brings up loads. The one I used comes in different sizes and thicknesses.

1. Click Import and pick the SVG file you downloaded. It comes in at full size with every version on it.
2. Right-click it and choose Ungroup.
3. Delete everything except the two pieces you need. I used the 53 x 60 mm stand made for 3 mm acrylic, because that's what I had.
4. Put the leftover acrylic back in, update the camera image and place the pieces where they fit.
5. The offcut won't sit flat now there's a hole in it. Prop something underneath, or close the lid firmly on it. The pressure is usually enough to hold it. Check you're still in focus.
6. Cut both pieces with the same settings: blue light, 90%, 3 mm/s, 1 pass.

To put it together, slot the two pieces into each other and push down gently so you don't snap them.

The result

I was really pleased with this one. The detail is great, the contrast is strong, and the stand finishes it off nicely. A quick recap of what made it work:

• Good quality cast acrylic, film removed.
• Focus set manually before you start.
• Background removed, then the material selected before Auto adjust.
• Infrared, dot duration 284, power 48%, DPI 305, Jarvis for the photo.
• Cuts kept close to the center of the bed.

Questions?

If you try this, I'd love to see how it turns out. Ask anything in the comments on the video and I'll do my best to help. For more tested values, have a look through the Laser Settings Library.